Columbia Air Center
History Project
The Columbia Air Center History Project is a history documentation and preservation project led by the College Park Aviation Museum in partnership with descendant communities of Columbia Air Center.
Columbia Air Center...
...also known as Riverside Airfield, was the first licensed Black-owned and operated airport in the United States. It operated from 1940-1962 and was located in Croom, Prince George’s County, Maryland, approximately 28-miles southeast of Washington, DC. It was an unsegregated space which catered to Black pilots in Washington, DC and surrounding Maryland and Virginia areas.
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The airport operated from c. October 1940 until February 1942 as Riverside Airfield and then from December 1944 to late 1954 as Columbia Air Center. It went through a number of ownership and name changes from 1954-1962 and was largely known as Croom Airport or Columbia Airport.
A Very Brief History of Columbia Air Center
In 1938, famed Black aviator Charles Alfred Anderson arrived in Northern Virginia and began teaching aviation to anyone who was interested, regardless of race or gender. Prior to his arrival, there are only two recorded African Americans who had flown and gained licenses in the DC area, they were two student pilots in 1936. Anderson primarily taught out of Hybla Vallery Airport and Beacon Airport, two white-managed airports in the Alexandria-Arlington, VA area. In 1939, a group of seven of his students, many who came from the local Black elite, formed a flying club named The Cloud Club. The club was officially incorporated in May 1940.​
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The Cloud Club originally flew out of Hybla Valley and Beacon Airports in Northern Virginia, but racial tensions grew as the number of Black pilots grew. White pilots were willing to tolerate a token few Black aviators, but not a burgeoning community. The Cloud Club was thrown out of one airport and was facing mistreatment at the other when, in late summer 1940, they decided to make an airport for themselves. Their ideal location was an unused farm on the banks of the Patuxent River, in Croom. They rented the land and opened Riverside Airfield.
The airfield thrived. The airfield started with four runways. The Cloud Club attracted celebrity jazz bandleader Jimmie Lunceford and they operated Howard University’s Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP) from 1940-1941. Charles Anderson had been Howard University’s first flight instructor, but in the summer of 1940 he left to teach Tuskegee Institute’s CPTP.
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Riverside hosted air shows, picnics, crabfests, and more. When the US entry into World War II, civilian flying on the Eastern seaboard was restricted in early 1942. The Anacostia Naval Station commandeered the airfield for training, making some improvements. The Cloud Club quietly dissolved during the war.
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In 1944, the Navy stopped using the airfield and former Riverside Airfield manager John W. Greene, Jr. contacted the Navy to reclaim the land. With the help of former Cloud Club financier Dr. Coleridge M. Gill, he reopened the airport as Columbia Air Center (CAC) in December 1944.
​On August 15, 1941, the Columbia Air Center hosted a "Crab-fest" and airshow that 800 people attended. The spectators saw airplane acrobatics and a daring parachute jump by airport manager John Greene. These events attracted both white and Black visitors. Though Black-owned and operated, Riverside Airfield and Columbia Air Center was an integrated field. The club hired white instructors and accepted white students.
Greene managed the airport for the next ten years. He successfully created the first Black squadron of the Civil Air Patrol (CAP), Columbia Squadron, and soon created a second, Syphax Squadron. CAC hosted many CAP cadets during its existence. As of 1947, the airfield had eight runways and fourteen aircraft. It employed and taught both Black and White Americans, men and women. Not just an airport, Columbia Air Center was also a used as a social space. Greene named the airport “Center” to represent this.​
One type of event airport manager John Greene hosted was motorcycle shows, sometimes to raise money for the airport. Here, cyclists perform stunts before crowds of visitors.​
​​In 1954, John Greene retired to complete his bachelor’s degree at Hampton Institute. Herbert H. Jones, Jr., Charles Wren, and other CAC members continued operating the airport until 1962. The airport’s name may have been changed to Croom Airport and the operating business was named the Capital Flying Club. In 1958, the GI Bill expired and many Black Americans who relied on it to fly at CAC could no longer afford it. Additionally, as airports in the DC area began desegregating some pilots began flying out of closer airports. Finally, the landowner, Rebecca Fisher, died c. 1961. Her heirs were not interested in maintaining the lease and sold the land to the Maryland-National Capital Park & Planning Commission (MNCPPC) in 1962. It is now part of the Patuxent River Park.
Columbia Air Center's Legacy
The history of Columbia Air Center is overlooked and deserves recognition alongside other Black aviation pioneers of the 1940s-1950s. Its success was unprecedented, it operated for twenty years and maintained an airfield with six-to-eight runways. Education was at CAC’s core, introducing aviation to an unknown number of youths through the Civil Air Patrol cadet squadrons, John Greene’s DC Public School teaching, and its own flight school. It was also home to the first Black CAP squadron. Right before Charles “Chief” Anderson taught the Tuskegee Airmen, he taught the Cloud Club. The individual legacies of its members are also astounding. Best known are the histories of John W. Greene, Jr. and Herbert H. Jones, Jr. Their stories will be more fully explored in the Columbia Air Center exhibition at College Park Aviation Museum.
John W. Greene, Jr. (center seated, in tie) was co-owner and manager of Columbia Air Center. He was also the organizer of the first DC Public School vocational aeronautics program, in 1940.
Preserving the Legacy of Columbia Air Center
Members and descendant communities of Columbia Air Center have preserved their own history. It is only within the last decade that museums, namely the College Park Aviation Museum (CPAM), have contributed to preservation efforts. In the late 1980s MNCPPC’s Black History Project began preserving some of the history of the airport and its people. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Black History Project did not have the support to effectively document this history and the small research and object collections were transferred to the young College Park Aviation Museum. College Park Aviation Museum is currently the only museum or historical institution preserving and showcasing the history of Columbia Air Center.
In 2018, grassroots historian Dr. Patricia Sluby donated a sizeable collection to the museum and in 2021, the sons of Herbert H. Jones, Jr., co-owner and manager of Columbia Air Center after John Greene’s retirement, loaned a sizeable collection of CAC items to the museum. The 2021 loan marks the beginning of the current exhibition and history project began. Through collaborations with a few CAC families, CPAM has conducted extensive research.
As the museum’s foundation, the Field of Firsts Foundation, Inc. hopes to assist CPAM in conducting research and reconnecting with lost descendant families and communities.
A group of historic Black aviators attending a Negro Airmen International gala c. 1987. Some of those depicted are: Hemingway, Charles Anderson, Hamilton, Morris, Herbert H Jones, Coles, Robert Jackson, Chuck White, Lloyd Lagrange, Ferguson Evans, Bob Barton, Harold Taylor, Larry Harbins, O'Dennis, Dr. Geraldo King, Pat Sluby, Steve Isaacs, Lloyd Coleman, Branch, Lewis Shorter, Weldon Bailey, Charles Wren, Quentin Ware, Leo Gray, Evie Washington, Reggie Campbell, Mel Cooper.
History Wanted
CPAM has only connected with five families or descendants of Columbia Air Center. There are over one hundred known people to have flown out of Columbia Air Center or Riverside Airfield. Though a great deal of history has been uncovered from these five connects, more are needed.
Please share this project with people who may have some connection to the history of Columbia Air Center.
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Please contact Curator of Collections Luke Perez (luke.perez@pgparks.com 301-864-5362) with any material, contacts, or feedback.
Coming Exhibition
In 2023, CPAM hired immersive exhibition designer TimeLooper to design the upcoming Columbia Air Center exhibition. The museum will completely renovate Gallery 1 for this exhibition. It will feature cutting-edge digital interactive elements, mixed with traditional museum elements.
This project is CPAM’s largest exhibition to date and requires the support of its community. Design is complete and the production phase will begin late 2024.
CPAM still needs support for this. We would like to thank our supporters and partners
SUPPORTERS
Maryland Historical Trust – Anacostia Trails Heritage Area grant
Air Force Grant to restore the gas pump
Natural and Historic Resources Division, Maryland-National Capital Park & Planning Commission
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PARTNERS
Rodney and Herbert H Jones, III, sons of Herbert H. Jones, Jr.
Lewis Shorter
Julianne Bethea, daughter of Dr. Coleridge M. Gill
Astrid Mast, daughter of Gladys Otey
Doris Collins, daughter of William Taylor
Dr. Patricia Sluby
Thomas Rafferty and Leslie Milfosky
Get a peek of the future exhibit in our Gallery 1
More visitor information
Membership
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About the museum
College Park Airport is the world's oldest continuously-operating airport, open since 1909.
The College Park Aviation Museum preserves and shares the exciting history of the airport, this "Field of Firsts."
Exhibits
Learn more about the aircraft and stories featured in the museum.